Immersion And eDimensional Making Sony's 'Impossible' Controller

After mocking Sony over its inability to implement both motion sensing technology and rumble technology into the new PlayStation 3 controller, Immersion Corporation has teamed up with third-party peripheral company eDimensional, in an attempt to deliver a blowing strike to the Japanese giant. During E3 2006, Sony has stated that it was impossible to have a controller that features both technologies, due to the gamepad's rumble interfering with its motion sensors. However, Immersion already stated that their experts "would be happy to solve that problem for them", and now they have gone a step further.

After all, if Sony doesn't seem to be interested in a peaceful collaboration, someone else surely is. And that someone is eDimensional, to whom Immersion granted a patent license for advanced vibro-tactile, spinning-mass gaming technologies ("rumble", in short) for use in PC, PlayStation and PlayStation 2 gaming peripherals. When coupled with eDimensional's own motion-sensing technology, this will hopefully result in a truly next-generation controller, the one that Sony was not able to produce - either due to technical consideration, or because of their ongoing lawsuit with Immersion Corporation over their illegal use of Immersion's "haptic" (rumble) technologies in the DualShock controllers.

eDimensional's intention is to include Immersion's TouchSense tactile feedback technology alongside its virtual reality motion-sensing found in the upcoming G-Pad Pro Gyroscopic Game Pad, designed for use with a PC or PlayStation 2. It will be interesting to see where all this is going.

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